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Having been challenged to write instructions on how to make a mummy the year three teachers invited all 90 year 3 children to take part in a chicken mummification ‘ceremony’ inspired by the 3000 year old Ancient Egyptian process.

Whilst smelling the sweet aroma of frankincense the children heard the live story-telling of an Ancient Egyptian myth of the first mummification involving the envious Seth, god of evil; tricking, killing and cutting his brother King Osiris’s body into 14 pieces and hurling them across the Nile. And of Isis, beloved wife of Osiris crying in sorrow at her husbands death, thus flooding the Nile. Then journeying to find the bits and put them back together so mummifying Osiris’s mutilated body with the help of the god Anubis. Read the story here.

Volunteers took turns to help in the mummification process as the others looked on enthralled listening to the parallels made to the mummification of a human body by ancient Egyptians. More about how ancient Egyptians mummified their dead here, here, and here.

What you need:

Small baby chicken gutted (I used a halal one because there is less blood in halal chicken as it’s drained out during the slaughtering process- perhaps this might make the mummifying process less smelly)

Dishwasher salt -3 x kg bags

Rock or sea salt (with no iodine added)

Bicarbonate of soda -2 containers approx

White wine vinegar-1 cup full

Optional- dried lavender flowers or rosemary leaves

3kg seal tight plastic container

Kitchen towel

Gloves

Antibacterial wipes

Bin with bin bags

Incense (optional)

A table

A large bowl

Method:

With gloves on Wash chicken with white wine vinegar, inside and out thoroughly ( this kills germs)

Create a ‘bed’ of the salt mixture in the base of the plastic container and add some dried herbs if using

Place washed and dried chicken on bed of salt mixture

Stuff salt mixture in every nook cranny and crevice of the chicken as well as the inside ( if using a chicken that isn’t gutted you could take these out and also preserve them in salt in home made canopic jars.

Then pour rest of salt mixture over top of stuffed chicken

Sprinkle on some more bicarbonate of soda (keeps away any bad odours)

Leave in covered plastic container for 6 weeks or until mummification process is completed.

Check on it every two weeks and replace all the salt mixture once at around 3-4 week point

NB of course whilst demonstrating and involving children, health and safety must be adhered to. Incense can be burned as Ancient Egyptians would have done. The chicken can be weighed before, during and after the mummification process for scientific purposes.

I’ve kept the mummifying chicken in the classroom, closed and out of the way of nosey children for some time and it’s been so easy to keep, bring out and show as well as maintain throughout the process.

Below are photos of the chicken 5 weeks into its mummification. I’d like to add that not at any time during this process has there ever been any unpleasant smell. In fact there is a slight smell of soap (probably from the dishwasher salt) as well as the gorgeous smell of lavender and perhaps just a whiff of old leather shoes.

Above I am squeezing the leg, it’s become quite firm and stiff but is still slightly too pink to be fully completed yet. But you can see how the skin has dried out and is now tightly following the shape of the bone beneath.

Above I’m pointing to the inside of the leg that has been face down on the salt bed is beginning to turn brown. A good sign meaning it is nearer to full mummification.

Above the chicken is beginning to take on a squashed appearance as the salt draws out the water and begins to dry it out.

Here you can see that the fleshy breast is far less mummified than other parts. My finger can press into the flesh still and leave an impression. This part needs much more time in the salt. The colour is also still pinkish.

I shall post more photos when it has completely mummified. We also hope to embalm it (wrap it in bandages) so these pictures will follow.

I hope this post helps make this really exciting activity accessible to your classroom thus bringing to life this strange and ancient art. (NB although we have parents of vegetarian/vegan children in our classes I’d like to add that no one made any complaint or comment about the process and all the children have been fully engaged throughout.)

I am your servant,
I am your slave,
I obey your command.
And never once do I question your demand.

Food I bring and drink I serve
Often more than you deserve.

Like a clock I can change with time,
Yet unlike a clock I am able to mime.
Though words I can’t speak
I can say a lot.
Things I can feel,
Though feelings I have not!

What am I?

This was the riddle I showed my class of 28 on the Monday of our school art & storytelling week.

It took a lot of logical thinking from one particular girl to finally answer the riddle correctly. She analysed every part of the riddle and justified her answer in such a beautiful and reasonable way and to everyone’s astonishment her answer of ‘a hand’ was entirely correct.

Our theme was hands and over the week I took the class on a whistle stop tour of some famous paintings, sayings and stories of hands. We began with a pair of the most famous and unfortunately commercialized hands throughout history. Albrecht Durer’s ‘Praying hands’. I story-told the famous, but untrue story of Albrecht and his brother Albert’s almost unobtainable dream to become artists and study at art school. Read here for a version of the story.

Albrecht Durer Hands or ‘The Praying Hands’

On day two we looked at our own hands and then grabbed ipads between pairs and went out into the sunny spring garden of our school and shot some gorgeous photos of our hands. The children had two tasks, first to find an intriguing natural object and photograph their partner holding that object. The second task was to get together into groups of 6 or 7 and put all their hands into interesting positions and take photographs of them. Here are just a few of the photographs the children took.

Before we looked at any art works we discussed how hands could have meaning. The children thought together in pairs and groups of all the ways they could think of that hands convey meaning. They thought of mime and sign language but strangely did not link the communication they do with their own hands on a day to day basis as part of hands having meaning. So we did some drama and acted in silence short scenarios that use hands to communicate something to someone else. The sudden upward shot of hands when something or someone is about to hit us, the outstretched hand when we want someone to give us something or help us and shaking someones hands to say hello were just some of the situations we explored.

I taught the children how to do what I call ‘scribble drawings’. A sure way to free anybody feeling constrained by having to get everything right. The children have not been trained in observational drawing and as a result have quite negative attitudes towards their work. Scribble drawings in pen are so free and fun that they forget the tiny details and look for the big shapes and shadows. Here are a few of their ‘scribble’ hand drawings and some foreshortened fingers.

Encouraging children to annotate their drawings, saying how they would change them what they don’t like discourages pessimism and them crossing out work. It get’s them to think in a practical way how they could improve it. The drawing below shows my favourite annotation ever! Having drawn a hand that she wasn’t too happy with, this young lady commented quite accurately that it resembled a turkey!

We discussed the work of Kate MacDowell, in particular her sculpture titled ‘in the hand’ and we story told another beautiful folk tale from India called The answer is in your hand. The children were amazed that Kate MacDowell’s sculpture linked so much with this Indian tale and they listened entranced as I told it. Kate MacDowell ‘s sculpture is so delicate, detailed and yet sparse with it’s crisp white porcelain finish and the children found it really interesting.

Having viewed images of many artworks involving hands we discussed together what the different artists might be saying through their art works. We learnt that some artists have a hidden message behind their art work and some have a message that is more obvious (like this Sudarsan Pattnaik sand sculpture). The children talked with each other about what was important to them and decided on their own title or message that they wanted to convey through their art work. They all created punchy titles that help their message to come across. By this stage they knew that they would be creating a 3D hand sculpture later on in the week and their message would need to be reflected in their sculpture.

Two particular titles I thought were brilliant. One was ‘Nature’s Hand’, the girl whose title this was, wanted to convey her love of nature and her desire for people to help conserve and look after nature. The other was ‘Soft, gentle Mom’, this was a boy who was stuck for any ideas, yet when asked: ‘What is important to you?’ he immediately answered, ‘My mom’. He described his mom’s hands as soft and gentle and so this evolved into his title.

Nature’s Hand

The children have completed their 2D designs and the plaster of paris hand casts have been created. Liquid plaster of paris was poured (by adults) into gloves that the children bought in, the top was then securely sealed with a rubber band. Then we then bent the fingers very sightly and pressed into the palm of the glove to give it a realistic feel. Quickly the plaster set into the new positions and then children were able to peel the gloves off and sand off any lumps and bumps. More information about how to do this.For health and safety risk assessment. You can also make balloon sculptures in this way.

Below are some of our 2D designs, some children have also written about why their message is so important to them.

Be Happy

Save Tigers

Stop Pollution

The Nature Hand

Racism & Violence Don’t Belong in Football

For children who have little experience drawing and sculpting, this is a nice way to bridge the gap between 2D and 3D work. The plaster hands can then be scratched into with different objects in order to create the creases and details of the hand. This must be done in a ventilated area because of the dust and goggles should be worn just as a precaution.

Our next task is to paint our 2D designs onto the plaster of paris glove/hand casts. I will post more photos of these as we get them painted. And of course, use some E600 glue to stick a couple of broke fingers back on!

Here are the some of the completed hands. We added PVA over the top of the paint to give a soft sheen and protect them a bit.

As first time revellers at the Wilderness Festival, my husband and I quickly realised that having brought our children along, we would probably be spending rather more time in the family section than we’d bargained for.

Whether it was the exotically feathered & sequinned ‘happy’ drifters, the masquerading

Skinny dippers at the Wilderness Festival

lines of males in leotards and leggings or the nudist couple casually wandering in their birthday suit that made our children a little shy, we weren’t sure. But what ever the reason, they spent much of their time attached to us by arm, hand or leg; leaving us parents precious little time to enjoy the luxuries, novelties and musical delights filling the Wilderness air

Nevertheless, all was not lost. Our eldest son found his calling which came in a strange guise…

As we wondered around the family tents which included many eco & bush-craft workshops such as braiding rope from stinging nettles, bow drill fire making, copper pendent metal working, wooden spoon carving, chalk carving and so forth; we came upon a small gathering of attentive children in a colourful cloth clad hut making unspeakable noises on bamboo didgeridoos .

Both boys quickly joined in, sitting at the feet of Ganesh. Much to his glee, Adam discovered that he could make a rather more pleasing sound which caught the attention of the teacher Mark.

Mark then invited Adam to make his own instrument and with much excitement he set to work on the task.

Step 1 was choosing the right bamboo pole for his instrument.

Step 2. Checking for any cracks and faults and sawing it off to the correct length.

Step 3. Scraping out the inner segments of the bamboo cane which took a whileStep 4. Sanding either end of the bamboo cane.

Step 5. Moulding the bees wax mouth piece (a natural antiseptic).

Step 6. Rubbing the outer length of the instrument and just inside the bottom end with linseed oil.

And lastly, here is an exhausted Adam having a lie down while still playing his new, hand made instrument.

What was so brilliant was that throughout the festival Adam was able to return to the didgeridoo classes to improve his playing and on the spur of the moment was even asked to perform with his teacher and a few other young players to a whole crowd of the youngest Wilderness revellers at the Flying Seagull Project theatre.

The year threes at JHN academy in Oxford, have been learning about rivers, pollution and how it affects wildlife. I showed them the art of Ahmad Nadalian and they were inspired by some of his methods and techniques. I collected some locally source scrap and recyclables such as bubble wrap, water bottles, sequin waste scraps, sponge, netting, corks Etc and showed the children how to print with them using a small sponge to dab on the acrylic paint and then print onto A3 paper. I took the children pond dipping which was an opportunity for them to see first hand the types of creatures that live in an outdoor water habitat. I taught them how to draw a pond creature-a damselfly nymph, which they completed on water colour paper. They then cut out their drawings and gave them a yellow ochre wash. Lastly we bent the legs and glued the feet to their pond prints to create these final pieces.

By the hand, the white shrouded figure is led up to the scales of Maat. Jackal Headed Anubis brings forth the heart to be weighed and in the presence of the gods the Ba bird flutters above, awaiting its soul’s judgement. The feather of Truth is laid. The scale is set with exact precision and all is suspended in oppressive silence. The only sound to break the deathly hush is the drop of Ammit’s salivating jaw as she eagerly awaits her prey. Then with a clank, the heavy heart pulls down the scales with the weight of its evil, leaving the airy feather floating for all to see. It is done. The judgement has been passed and with a half starved snarl Ammit grabs what is rightfully hers. The evil heart, soul and Ba bird; all are devoured.

Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead- With a contemporary twist

I spent a day with Windmill Primary School’s fantastic Yr 6’s who created some superb Ancient Egyptian art with a modern twist. Do have a closer look at who the white shrouded figure being led by the jackal headed Anubis actually is. A leader famous for cruelty, death and genocide.

I story told the myth of Isis and Osiris to the children and then we discussed Hunefer ‘s famous papyrus scroll commonly called Hunefer ‘s Book of the Dead. (NB this is a colour enhanced version, to see it in original click here)

The children were each asked to draw, paint and then cut out a figure, either individually or in pairs. I showed them how to draw an Egyptian figure using the Ancient Egyptian Canon. All the figures and elements in the scroll were measured according to this formula which kept everything in proportion. Below is the enthroned Isis, Lord of the Underworld, who will pronounce the final judgement over the soul of the deceased. This heart weighed more then the feather of Truth so the demon Ammit will consume it and the soul will not attain immortal life.

The All Seeing Eye of Atum

There is an intriguing creation story of the all seeing eye. It begins with the dark, swirling, chaotic mass of Nu before Creation was made. From Nu arose Atum, and he was alone. He created a hill named Ben Ben, upon which he could stand and with his shadow he created a son and a daughter. Atum spat out his son Shu, god of air and his daughter he coughed out, she was Tefnut the goddess of moisture.

Tefnut and Shu had two children. The sky goddess Nut whose star studded body arches across the sky and gives birth to the sun every day. The other child was Geb the god of the earth and growing things. Nut and Geb always wish to be together but Shu keeps them apart so that creation can exist between them.

Once, Atum lost his children Shu and Tefnut in the chaos of Nu and was frantically looking for them. He sent his ‘all seeing eye’ around Creation to look for Shu and Tefnut and eventually the eye found them and brought them back to their desperate father. He was overjoyed and cried tears of happiness. It is from these tears of joy that the first humans were created.

Having story told several myths relating to the ‘all seeing eye’, I asked the children to look at their own eye in a mirror. The concentration was almost tangible as I talked them through observing the light, shadows, reflections and shapes in their eyes. After this observation they then began to draw the outlined shape of their eye on A3 paper and worked on observing and drawing the detail. The last step was to turn it into the eye of Horus.

The Eye of Horus

Horus is the son of Osiris who was brutally murdered by his jealous and evil brother Seth. Horus wishes to avenge his father’s murder and reclaim the throne of Egypt from his evil uncle, so he challenges Seth. An eighty year long battle ensues and in one particularly difficult fight Seth gauges out Horus ‘s left eye and breaks it into six tiny pieces. However with the help of his mother Isis and Thoth the god of medicine, the eye is restored and returned to Horus who gives it as a gift to his father Osiris. Although the eye is restored, it never regains it’s original brightness and thus represents the moon and is a symbol of protection against evil, of rebirth, regeneration and healing.

Further useful links for teachers and anyone else interested in ancient Egyptian Mythology

Here are some good ideas for covering the topic of ‘The Romans’ with children, including making Roman weaponry, mosaic designs, storytelling, a class assembly, making props and displays.

Roman Mosaic Designs

I visited a Year Three class in Barton, Oxford and taught the children how to draw Roman style dolphins.

We looked at an image of Roman dolphins and I told a story about the handsome Neptune riding a sea chariot drawn by sea horses and winged cupid astride dolphins riding the frothy waves. Find a story to tell here.

Below is a drawing I did in chalks to show the children how to design a mosaic and to give them a visual idea of what I was asking them to create.

The children began by hand drawing a border on their piece of black paper, I then showed them step-by-step, how to draw a Roman dolphin in white chalk. I invited them to complete their design showing the idea of the tesserae by drawing little shapes for the background. They then embellished their border if they had time.

(Unfortunately the children were not able to finish their artwork with me due to time constraints and I do not have photos of their completed work.)

How to draw a Roman dolphin-step by step

Here is a step by step version of what I took them through. Try it for yourself first. Children don’t need to know what part they are drawing. All they need to hear is your descriptions and copy you.

Describe the lines you draw like saying ‘now draw a gently curved line going up’ Etc.

TIP:

Make sounds with your voice as you draw, the children will copy you and this helps them ‘feel’ what they are doing. It works!!! If my pencil goes up, then my voice goes up too. Try it!

TIP: Use your voice to describe the movement. or say ’round’ in a curvy way.

.

Remember, everyone’s will be unique and that is good!

The picture below was one I had on show for children to get ideas of Roman border designs, they also had access to reference books on Roman mosaics and images on the internet.Storytelling

Every week, in two year three classes I spent half an hour storytelling Roman myths to the children. I was amazed at the way the stories really captured their imaginations and created many links and connections for them.

The children’s response to the story of the unfortunate nymph Echo was amazing to see. Echo who was admired by Jupiter (king of the gods), is cursed by his jealous wife Juno (queen of the Gods) to never speak again but merely echo the sounds she hears around her. Echo falls in love with Narcissus who shuns her advances and chooses to wither away his life uselessly in love with his own reflection. Poor Echo then spurns the advances of amorous Pan the half goat half man (god of shepherding & music) and is shattered into a thousand pieces across the world where she remains to this day.

Children often came to me saying that they heard Echo under a bridge on the way home, or that they heard her in their hall at home. One child even asked how come Echo was in the school toilets. The right story can get children thinking and learning beyond the classroom and this is the most exciting kind of learning.

Class Assembly on the ‘Rotten Romans’

You may be wondering what on earth this clever recycled camera has to do with the Romans. Well, the Yr Three class I was with in Littlemore decided to do their own news round assembly of the facts they learnt about the Romans and it all began with one of the children shouting ‘Action’ and pretending to film it using this camera.

Rat Sandwich anyone?

One of the children discovered during an internet research lession that Romans liked eating rat sandwiches. This was of great fascination to them and so we decided to make our own rat sandwich using painted sponges and pipe cleaners for the curly tails.Another child discovered that some Romans drank blood, so we died tissues red with food colouring and put it in a plastic cup to use in our news round assembly and on our class display.Fearsome Fighters

We made Roman helmets, shields, swords out of cardboard boxes, paint, tissue paper and foil. We used these in our class assembly to act out a fight between a gladiator and a Roman soldier, our audience gave the thumbs down and the gladiator was slain at the Emperor’s bidding! Two wire hooks on the back of the shields for the handle.My favourite are the gladiator sandals!!!

Made from 100% cardboard and a few well placed staples.

All those props made a super cool display!

Along with our non chronological reports, Roman key words, facts that the children discovered and wrote, pictures and dates.

The children ended their class assembly with the Boudica rap from Horrible Histories. We made Boudicca head bands and the three Boudiccas wore cloth capes. All in all both classes thoroughly enjoyed the Rotten Roman topic and the creative activities, storytelling and class assembly really brought the whole topic to life.

This is a lovely activity to do with children, and the more adult support you have then the better the peg dolls look. The children I’ve been working with made some Christmas themed peg dolls using old fabric scraps, lots of imagination and some adult help with preparing resources. They were hoping to make the dolls to sell at the school Christmas fair.

Brain Wave: One of the teachers also had the fantastic idea of making up packs of peg doll parts so that other children could buy them and make their own at home.

Choir of angels

The angel was the most tricky to make with it’ s lace wings, under garment made of wrapped piece of cream rectangular fabric held in place with a rubber band ‘belt’. The wings and wool hair were attached with copydex, but a glue gun would have worked too.

The golden cape was a thin rectangular piece of shiny fabric, which I glued onto the chest, the pipe cleaner arms were wrapped around the neck like a scarf and then modeled into place. The paper book was first decorated and then glued to the arms with copy dex, the sequins were glued onto the skirt. Varnish face before using pen for features.

‘Gold I bring…’

One of the three kings: the crown is made of silver paper, arms of black pipe cleaner, black string to hang him up and gold ribbon for the belt. The over coat is cut from one strip of fabric with a hole in the middle to fit over the head, this covers a rectangular piece of fabric wrapped around the peg (like an under garment) and held in place with a rubber band. The only glue needed was to attach the crown to the head and the present to the arms-prit stick works.

Shepherd

To get a darker complexion for the shepherd you need to varnish the face/head first. Then use brown felt tip all over and put hair and features on with fine permanent black marker.

He had pipe cleaners for the arms and half a one for the shepherd’s hook. His cloak was one strip of fabric with a hole in the middle rather like the kings-just in more shepherd-like colours. He also had an undergarment held in place with a rubber band ‘belt’. Use string for the belt, no glue needed for shepherd at all.